I am pregnant and due in late Feb/early March 2011. I don't want to contact my ob yet or start to look for a midwife because I had a failed pregnancy in 2008 and another in 2009 and I want to give this one a few or several weeks first.

What is the status of hb midwives in Germany? The last I heard, after July 1st, all non-hospital midwives will be unable to practice legally due to the spike in liability insurance rates. Did anything change? Is UC legal in Germany?

Thanks :-),
Walosi

addendum: I have two much older children (11,8) and my last full term labor was very easy.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! May it all go smoothly.
Most homebirth midwives that I found in Germany were actually hospital midwives that also did homebirth.
Perhaps the insurance question only affects completely independent midwives?
Also, I don't know if UC is technically legal, but during my last pregnancy (in Germany) I said something to the midwife about not calling her until the last minute and asked what would happen if she didn't make it in time (wink, wink) - and she just said that she felt I would be prepared to handle the birth and it wouldn't be a big deal if she weren't there.
I'll see if I can get any information from my friend in Germany about the situation.

technically not all midwives will be unable to practice if they can afford the rates! that's an issue of whether or not they give up practice because of finances but it doesn't effect legal status.
I would definitely look around for midwives and ask if they'll still be working on your due date. There has been a petition to change the new rules so not all hope is lost!
I don't really see how giving birth can be illegal at all, actually, UC or not, but I'm no expert.

technically not all midwives will be unable to practice if they can afford the rates! that's an issue of whether or not they give up practice because of finances but it doesn't effect legal status.
I would definitely look around for midwives and ask if they'll still be working on your due date. There has been a petition to change the new rules so not all hope is lost!
I don't really see how giving birth can be illegal at all, actually, UC or not, but I'm no expert.

^^^I agree with this^^^

I just had a baby in Cologne. We had planned a home birth but unfortunately ended up having to transfer to hospital and have a cesarean. Anyway, my midwife was from the Geburtshaus here. I'm not sure about other Geburtshäuser, but the one here all the midwives also do home birth. And all the midwives there also will remain in full practice even if this awful new insurance thing goes through, because they are all very full and busy and make enough to continue (many midwives do not attend enough births to make it worth their while if the new prices take effect). So, I would recommend looking into your closest Geburtshaus. Good luck!

UC is not illegal in germany. a doctor is by law required to have a midwife present at birth. a woman is not required to have a midwife present. but if you ended up birthing at home by yourself you'd have to have the birth confirmed by a physician or midwife afterwards which can be a pain in the butt. you need a piece of paper (birth certificate) signed by a doc or MW in order to file the birth with the german officials (geburtsanzeige). if you did UP in germany followed by a UC, i'm pretty sure you'd be met with an endless storm of negativity after the birth. if you tried to get a birth certificate from a doc and didn't even have a mutterpass, they'd probably give you hell for it.

homebirth is NOT illegal, homebirth midwifes still CAN get insurance. it's just gotten very expensive making it increasingly difficult for independent midwifes to provide birth assistance. basically, the more births a midwife does per year, the more affordable insurance is for her. that means HB MWs who also are part of a geburtshaus are more likely to stay in business.

where do you live? you can enter the first three digits of your zip code (or those of neighboring towns) here http://www.hebammensuche.de/no_cache/hebverz.html. look for midwifes who have listed "hausgeburt", many also list "englisch" if they feel comfortable providing services in english. if you find one that offers homebirth but doesn't speak english, maybe you could hire a doula to double as translator as well. homebirth midwifes in germany often travel further to their women than you'd think. so call everyone who's even remotely in your area! it's worth it.

if you need help, let me know and i'll gladly see what i can do.

i'm preparing to start a bilingual blog about homebirth in germany so that hopefully in the future more women will have easy access to all the helpful information. unfortunately so far, there's a definite lack of resources about this subject both for german and english speaking families. if more women choose homebirth because more women KNOW about their rights and options, then the insurance issues will no longer keep many wonderful midwifes from attending births.

Unassisted childbirth is not illegal, but if the child is harmed during birth or dies, and this could have been prevented if there had been a CNM present, you probably will be criminally charged with bodily injury caused by negligence / negligent homicide.( § 222 und 229 StGB)